1897 in South Africa
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Incumbents
- Governor of the Cape of Good Hope and High Commissioner for Southern Africa:Hercules Robinson then Alfred Milner.
- Governor of the Colony of Natal: Charles Bullen Hugh Mitchell.
- State President of the Orange Free State: Martinus Theunis Steyn.
- State President of the South African Republic: Paul Kruger.
- Prime Minister of the Cape of Good Hope: John Gordon Sprigg.
- Prime Minister of the Colony of Natal:
- until 14 February: John Robinson.
- 15 February â 4 October: Harry Escombe.
- starting 4 October: Henry Binns.
Events
- April
- 21 â Sir Alfred Milner becomes High Commissioner of South Africa and Governor of the Cape Colony.
- May
- 5 â Port Elizabeth is flooded.
- December
- 30 â The Colony of Natal annexes Zululand.
- Unknown date
- Bergville is established in the foothills of the Drakensberg mountains in Natal.
- "Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika" ("God Bless Africa") is composed as a Xhosa hymn by South African teacher Enoch Sontonga.
Births
- 3 July â Ludwig Wybren Hiemstra, Afrikaans linguist and editor of the Bilingual Dictionary, is born in Lydenburg.
- 26 October â James Leonard Brierley Smith, ichthyologist, is born in Graaff Reinet.
Railways
Railway lines opened
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- 13 March â Cape Western â Mafeking to Ramatlabama at the Bechuanaland border, 16 miles (25.7 kilometres).[1]
- 3 August â Transvaal â Frederikstad to Klerksdorp, 43 miles (69.2 kilometres).[1]
- 1 October â Cape Midland â Rosmead Junction to Middelburg, 7 miles 3 chains (11.3 kilometres).[2]
- 1 December â Natal â Isipingo to Park Rynie, 27 miles 48 chains (44.4 kilometres).[1]
- 3 December â Natal â Verulam to Tongaat, 12 miles (19.3 kilometres).[1]
- 15 December â Natal â Thornville Junction to Richmond, 17 miles 17 chains (27.7 kilometres).[1]
Locomotives
- Cape
Two new Cape gauge locomotive types enter service on the Cape Government Railways (CGR):
- Six 4th Class 4-4-2 Atlantic type tender locomotives on the section from Kimberley southwards.[3]
- A third batch of fifty-five 6th Class 4-6-0 steam locomotives. In 1912 they would become Class 6B on the South African Railways.[3][4][5][6]
- Transvaal
- The independent Pretoria-Pietersburg Railway in the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek (Transvaal Republic) purchases a 4-6-0 35 Tonner tank locomotive named Portuguese from the Lourenco Marques, Delagoa Bay and East Africa Railway in Mozambique.[3]
- Arthur Koppel, acting as agent, imports a number of Dickson-built 0-4-2ST narrow gauge saddle tank steam locomotives to mines on the Witwatersrand.[6]